 Fire Emblem Engage, it releases this week and I haven't done a lot of talking about the game just a few sparing news stories here and there but that changes today because Nintendo is doing something with Fire Emblem Engage that is showing extreme confidence in its release. Yeah, we had previews like a week or two ago and they were very glowing about the game especially from a visual perspective. But a lot of you out there are worried about it not being like three houses, there's no white foods this time around and there's not this whole three path divergent stuff and this whole school thing going on. Some of you really love that and maybe they'll revisit a Fire Emblem like that in the future but this is a more traditional Fire Emblem with obviously its own quirks and twists, the animal aspect, the rings that bring in former characters from past games but Nintendo is doing something with it this week that is a little bit out of the ordinary and this has to do with its reviews. Now typical Nintendo review embargoes are usually either two days or a day before a game comes out. They're pretty consistent about Wednesday being the review embargo but every now and then they'll have a Thursday. Usually the games you see on Thursday will be you know maybe some like Nintendo Switch sports or something like that but then you'll see like hey Breath of the Wild review embargoes on Wednesday, Super Mario Odyssey review embargoes on Wednesday, Animal Crossing New Horizons review embargoes on Wednesday. They're very consistent that most of their bigger games have a Wednesday review embargo but Nintendo is different this time around. They picked Tuesday. Very very interesting that Tuesday is the review embargo for Fire Emblem Engage that means tomorrow we will know what the media and select YouTubers and content creators know about Fire Emblem Engage which is pretty exciting just to know that hey as of Tuesday we can really get the hype going on this. Also this could be a very highly reviewed game. I'll get into that in a moment but what's interesting is the confidence to show the game now. Now some people are going to turn their speculation on its head and go well maybe the review embargoes on Tuesday because Nintendo has something else going on on Wednesday. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think we're getting any directs or anything crazy this week. I think the Tuesday review embargo lift is because one Nintendo knows they want this game to get more attention and two they're supremely confident that there's going to be massive buzz heading into launch off the reviews and they want those reviews out as soon as possible. Guys Fire Emblem Three Houses debuted with an 89 on Metacritic and Open Critic. That's really good. What if Fire Emblem Engage is expected to review in the 90s instead. Once you start talking about a major game releasing in the 90s you start getting into game of the year discussions. Now I'm not saying Fire Emblem Engage has a shot against games like Tiers of the Kingdom or Starfield, Redfall, Forspoken, Final Fantasy XVI. Look there's a lot of really big games coming out this year assuming everything hits its target release dates. Oh man Fire Emblem Engage could end up being one of the highest reviewed Fire Emblems of all time and I think that's what Nintendo is trying to tell us. We'll obviously know tomorrow when the review embargo lifts if it actually lives up to that hype. But I think there's a lot of reasons to be excited for Fire Emblem Engage. For starters if you're a huge fan of traditional Fire Emblem whether it's the old school ones pre-awakening along the GameCube and other systems, sweet or maybe it is the awakening style that you're really into. This game really digs into classic Fire Emblem and I like that they're taking what was amazing in the past and simply perfecting it not just from an animation standpoint but it really looks like just from a gameplay standpoint maybe even a storytelling standpoint and even the new features they're throwing in they're making all the systems integrate and work together like they are with the animal raising which is really cool that you can save a bunch of different animals throughout and put them in a shelter and take them from the shelter and let them free roam and obviously use them to help advance your advancement with other characters and build your relationships and make them stronger bonds which help you in combat situations. Look this to me is flushing out to be an amazing game so much so that I really want to pick it up this week. So here's the way that I'm sort of sorting through this whole mess of stuff and that is by saying if Nintendo is saying the review embargo is on Tuesday which Nintendo basically never does for any of their games on launch week then they're telling you we want people hyping this game up now before the Nintendo Prime podcast happens on Wednesday we want you hyped now okay that wouldn't really matter because reviews would still be out on that probably Wednesday but we'll have a good idea of where it's going to fall in the ratings so what I did is put up a poll asking people their thoughts on where Fire Emblem Engage is going to rank. Is it going to be a 90 plus game, an 85 plus game, an 80 plus game or somewhere in the 70s? I don't actually know where the poll results sit at the time of recording but it'll be shown on screen. I personally think that this is going to end up being a 90 plus rated game. Fire Emblem 3 houses settled in at 89 I think we're going to settle in at least a 90 if not a smidge higher I don't think we're talking 96, 97 territory but I do think we're going to see the low 90s with this game across the board. Look Fire Emblem Engage to me is really being overlooked by some Nintendo fans and for others that have been really interested in Fire Emblem before three houses are really missing out because I understand if you don't like the color palette or you're really critical of the main character I think that's fine valid criticism you like what you like you don't like what you don't like but I think to dismiss an entire game in a genre you've previously enjoyed because you don't like a specific character design is a little weird these are brand new characters it's cool if you don't like their design I don't like the design of all the characters in Breath of the Wild I'm not going to suddenly write off the game and I understand you might go but Nate we're talking about like hey if this was the character design of Link I don't like well that's cool good thing I don't spend a majority of the time looking at Link's face when I'm fighting people you don't really spend a majority of time in that in Fire Emblem I know a bit more they have their avatars and screen they dance around I get it but maybe there's other really cool characters that you like a lot and you think are expertly designed that you might not find out about because you wrote the game off I'm just saying Fire Emblem Engage looks incredible sounds incredible the marketing in Japan for this game has been off the charts a little bit less so here I was watching a player essence video on this topic earlier and he noted something that I wasn't thinking about and that was that possibly we're seeing a bit a little bit less marketing here from Nintendo themselves because they have marketing deals with like IGN or GameSpot so the this whole week we're going to start seeing several minutes of gameplay and all that leading into release whereas in Japan there's not really a whole bunch of outlets doing that so Nintendo feels like they have to market a lot because there aren't media outlets to do that for them they feel like here hey instead of us spending money and making this stuff ourselves let's just let you know you creators and and and review outlets do it for us so yeah I think there's just a difference in marketing strategies and I think both of them work but yes this game looks incredible I think it's gonna review really well Nintendo seems supremely confident with that Tuesday drop and yeah you guys I mean what you think what fire I'm engaged in how excited you are down in the comments below now before we move on I just want to note I don't know how much you guys are gonna notice because I'm not sure what it's gonna look like yet but our entire setup here is getting torn down and rebuilt today we're not changing you know stuff here like like when you see the TV is up and this isn't going anywhere just yet they'll eventually be something different here that's later this year but I came to a revelation today that's gonna simplify a lot of things for me I don't know how different it's gonna look on camera for you guys at least in some regards some some shots and it depends on how I set it up might look a little different but it'll be really simplified and we'll put images and stuff up of what the setup was before compared to what the setup is now later but so you can maybe get a better idea maybe even on Twitter or on our community section to show people hey this is what I was rocking before now let's look at how simple it is now I don't know it's a really big change and it's gonna take a lot of time so thank you guys for tuning in that's what we're spending the rest of my day doing until tonight I will see you guys tonight on a live stream we should be back up and running by then alright guys catch you in the next video